NewsScan Daily, 14 July 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 14 July 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class organization making
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appropriate use of information technology. NSD is written by John Gehl and
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"  
       Outsourcing Outrage Going Out of Style
       TV on Your Laptop
       Nanotech Beckons to Investors
       Twomey Faces ICANN Cost Crunch
       E-Mail Privacy: Don't Count on It

FEATURES           
       Flash Card
       Honorary Subscriber: Nikos Kazantzakis
       Mailbag: The World As We Find It

OUTSOURCING OUTRAGE GOING OUT OF STYLE
     The clamor against the outsourcing to India of computer software and
back-office services appears to have faded substantially. Infosys chief
executive Nandan M. Nilekani says: "The backlash against outsourcing has
abated, customer spending is on the rise, and we have redesigned ourselves
internally to take advantage of the vast opportunities." According to Sunil
Mehta of India's leading software industry trade body: "The debate about
outsourcing appears to have moved from an emotional, anecdotal, job-losses
plane to a more sober, balanced one about the advantages of globalization of
services." Ironically, the anti-outsourcing clamor in the U.S. has actually
turned out to be good for the outsourcing business. Partha Iyengar, research
director for Gartner explains: "The backlash proved a gold mine of free
publicity for Indian outsourcing companies," and the U.S.-based CEO of iGate
Global Solutions (operates in Bangalore, India) says: "The backlash issue
made outsourcing so mainstream that even my barber was speaking
knowledgeably about outsourcing." (New York Times 14 Jul 2004)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/14/business/worldbusiness/14infosys.html

TV ON YOUR LAPTOP
     Toshiba has designed a laptop computer that lets users watch TV on it
without having to boot up the computer's operating system. Called Qosmio
(koss-me-oh), it's the first laptop to fully integrate audio and video
features (including a bright, near TV-quality display, DVD drive, TV tuner,
and enhanced speakers). A 15-inch model will be available in August at a
price between $2,499 and $2,599. Industry analyst Rob Enderle thinks the
Qosmio has "arguably the best laptop display currently on the market," and
says that the people at Toshiba have "just moved the bar and are further
defining this multimedia class of products." (San Jose Mercury News 14 Jul
2004)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9145927.htm

NANOTECH BECKONS TO INVESTORS
     Nanotechnology has become the latest fad on Wall Street, where bankers
and venture capitalists are pushing for initial public offerings of nanotech
startups. The science involves manipulating matter smaller than 100
nanometers and taking advantages of properties that are present only at that
level (conductivity would be one example). A nanometer is one-billionth of a
meter, and the name derives from the Greek word "nanos," meaning dwarf.
Nanotechnology's promoters say that within 10 years the research will lead
to such things as sugar-cube-sized supercomputers, cancer tagging molecules,
and solar cells in roofing tiles. Although some venture capitalists have
warned of a nanotech "bubble," industry analyst Juan Sanchez remains
confident and is not put off by the hype: "Hype helps this sector to
function and to be successful. The risk with hype is the timing of it.
Overhype at the wrong moment can bring black clouds." (AP/USA Today 13 Jul
2004)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/techstocknews/2004-07-13-nano-stoc
ks_x.htm

TWOMEY FACES ICANN COST CRUNCH
     The Australian head of the Internet's technical policy body will face
his biggest test next week when stakeholders meet in Kuala Lumpur to thrash
out the next budget of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN). Paul Twomey, who comes from the Queensland town of Dalby,
became chief executive of ICANN in March last year. He has spent much of his
time since then consulting interest groups and shoring up the fledgling
body's role, as the Internet's stability becomes increasingly crucial for
governments and business. (The Australian 13 Jul 2004) Rec'd from John Lamp.
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,10120033%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E
,00.html

E-MAIL PRIVACY: DON'T COUNT ON IT
     A recent federal appeals court ruling giving e-mail less protection
than other types of communication has inspired privacy advocates to
reemphasize the need for caution in the use and management of e-mail. Kevin
Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation warns: "Under this decision,
any node on the Internet that passes e-mails could flip a switch and start
looking at any e-mail that passed through it," and Marc Rotenberg of the
Electronic Privacy Information Center says that until Congress or the courts
change the law "the best practice is not to put into e-mail something that
you are concerned might be disclosed to a third party." And privacy expert
J.J. Luna gives this piece of good advice: "Never sell a computer with a
hard drive to anyone, for any reason."  (Wall Street Journal 14 Jul 2004)
http://www.wsj.com

*****

FLASH CARD
     "Everything in the world has a hidden meaning... Men, animals, trees,
stars, they are all hieroglyphics. When you see them you do not understand
them. You think they are really men, animals, trees, stars. It is only years
later that you understand." (Nikos Kazantzakis in his novel 'Zorba the
Greek')

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS
     Today's Honorary Subscriber is the Greek author and philosopher Nikos
Kazantzakis (1885-1957), who is probably best known for the popular movie
made from his novel, "Zorba the Greek." Another of his earthy, realistic
novels, "The Greek Passion," was also made into a film. More controversial
was his imaginative book-turned-into film, "The Last Temptation of Christ,"
which prompted angry reactions from both the Roman Catholic Church, which
banned it, and from the Greek Orthodox Church which excommunicated him.
Perhaps his most ambitious work, however, was his 1938 verse tale, "The
Odyssey, a Modern Sequel," in which he explores the worldviews of Buddha,
Jesus, Nietzsche, Lenin, and other notable historical figures.
     Among his many other contributions to modern Greek literature,
Kazantzakis has produced lyric poetry, philosophic essays, travel books,
tragedies, and modern Greek translations of such classics as Dante's "Divine
Comedy" and Goethe's "Faust."
     Kazantzakis was born in Candia, Crete, at a time when the Greek island
was in revolt against the Ottoman Turks. Some of his youth was spent on the
Greek Island of Náxos, where his family had fled for safety. From 1902 until
1906, Kazantzakis studied law at the University of Athens, and for the two
years following he studied philosophy under Henri Bergson in Paris. After
that he traveled widely in Spain, England, Russia, Egypt, Palestine, and
Japan. Before World War II he settled on the island of Aegina, and after the
war he served as a minister in the Greek government. During the years
1947-48 he worked in Paris for the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). He then moved to Antibes, France.
     His early writing was more philosophical than literary, mostly attempts
to synthesize his thoughts about the many disparate worldviews expounded by
the philosophers he studied. He also sought to reconcile conflicts generated
by modern thought and traditional Christian and Buddhist views. Later his
powers as a poet and storyteller emerged to make him a best-selling author.
Philosophic themes were still his potent inspiration, but now he presented
them in literary dress so that his readers would relate to more comfortably.
For example, the Bergsonian notion of the elan vital was embodied in the
exuberant figure of Zorba, and the value of liberty was shown in the person
of the Cretan resistance fighter against Turkish domination. He considered
The "Odyssey: A Modern Sequel," his epic poem of 33,333 lines, to be his
masterpiece, but recognized that he was better known for his novels.
     In 1956, he was awarded the International Peace Award, and in 1957 he
lost the Nobel Prize by a single vote to the French writer Albert Camus.
Kazantzakis died in 1957 in Germany and is buried on one of the bastions of
the Venetian fort surrounding Iraklion, on the island of Crete.

See http://tinyurl.com/4eg8m for the novel and http://tinyurl.com/5eagj for
the movie version of "Zorba the Greek" -- or look for them in your favorite
library. Note: We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult
literacy programs.]

MAILBAG: THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT

THE VERIZON VIEW OF 'NEXTEL'S SHRILL THREATS'
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10936
     I was surprised by your Nextel item since I heard a story on NPR about
how Nextel had made out like bandits.  Your story ("FFC orders Nextel to Pay
$3.2 billion" and "give up its current portion") makes it sound like Nextel
was creamed. Here's Verizon's view of the whole thing: "Nextel's shrill
threats to walk away from its responsibilities to fix the problem they cause
for police, fire and other emergency services unless the company receives an
illegal multi-billion dollar windfall from the FCC are nothing short of
outrageous." Nicely said. I don't know who's right, but if I'd read only
your blurb, I'd be missing a lot of the story.  I rely NewsScan for short,
accurate capsules.  You are usually very good at providing the whole story.
What happened this time? (Prof. Humberto Barreto, Department of Economics,
Wabash College)

COOL AND DISCONNECTED
RE: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10920
     Give me a break!  All those gazillons of people, who don't seem to mind
my hearing all the details of their lives and business when they yell into
their cell phones in public, want privacy?  And do (or did) they they worry
when their landline number and their address is listed in the phone book?  I
am glad to be cool and disconnected! (Jean Currie, Executive Director, South
Central Regional Library Council)

THE USES OF FICTION, POETRY, ARTS ... AND CURRY
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10918
     The ³impoverishment of imagination² cited by Professor Postman comes
not from the wrong approach to science education but from highly specialized
and focused teaching. On the road to discovery, human mind needs enrichment
from many sources, such as fiction, poetry, arts, history, religion,
culture, foreign languages, etc. Dr Abdus Salam, a Pakistani who won a Nobel
prize in physics, says that the inspiration for his theory came from a verse
from the Holy Qur'an. Omar Khayyam (1050?­1122), a Muslim mathematician and
astronomer, is known more for his Rubáiyát, the collection of four-line
stanzas, some of which were translated into English by Edward Fitzgerald
(1859). 
     In Urdu language (also Arabic and Farsi), a physician practicing herbal
medicine is called ³hakeem.² The word literally means a ³wise man.² A hakeem
would specialize in medicine but had a good knowledge of local environment,
diet, geography, culture, arts, history, poetry, philosophy, etc. So, he
would diagnose not just from the body symptoms but also consider all other
factors that might have affected the patient. Unlike modern doctors, he did
not need to refer his patients to others for various tests.
     The well-rounded knowledge would lead to interesting developments. For
example, the hakeems realized that people needed a siesta to have a break
during the long summer days. So, they evolved through experimentation a
staple curry food that stimulated sleep when taken for lunch! Can any modern
M.D. even think of doing something like that? Science subjects are now so
fragmented that a specialist or expert in any of them is just an MBA ­
Master of Barely Anything! Allah Hafiz! (Muhammad Abd al-Hameed, Lahore,
Pakistan, Email: [email protected])

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